Stepped up police patrols to nab distracted drivers are showing a 36 percent rise in the number of motorists cited for texting or using handheld cellphones. The News Tribune of Tacoma lauds efforts in Washington to get tough on such practices but, lamenting a dangerous habit on the rise, urges more patrols and more expensive citations.

California Gov. Jerry Brown wins plaudits from the Los Angeles Times for simplifying an arcane and punishing formula for public school funding - and in the doing creating compromise on a contested state budget. The newspaper says Brown's recent actions to cut through zoning-driven models to the benefit of the state's financially disadvantaged students, especially, "could well become the great legacy of his administration."

The fact that Oregon's top education officer, Rudy Crew, placed himself in contention for a New York job should come as no surprise. The Daily Astorian, on Oregon's north coast, argues that Gov. John Kitzhaber should have known better before hiring him. Crew, the newspaper writes, is an itinerant star who "has taken the consultant concept to a level of compensation, job security and job-hopping unimagined by the traveling experts who live in airports and hotels."

School board members in Medford want to dismiss Superintendent Phil Long for not adequately following their directives. The Mail Tribune, however, urges the board to stand down and allow Long, who has headed the county's largest school district for eight years, to continue through the expiration of this contract, in 2014. The newspaper says dismissal would complicate the search for a replacement, because "It is unlikely top-notch candidates would be willing to come to a district to work for what would be seen as a dysfunctional board in a divided community."

The Oregonian's editorial board, meanwhile, urges state lawmakers to keep their eye on the rising costs of higher education. If they can manage to put a PERS/revenue deal together, the board argues, a major gain would be "buying down tuition increases and easing the burdens on Oregon students."

Separately, the board chides Portland Mayor Charlie Hales for refusing to release the findings of a city-sponsored probe of its top administrator, Jack Graham, accused by whistleblowers of attempting to misallocate sewer and water funds to protect his staff from agencywide budget cuts.

And Gwendolyn Sullivan, president of the Portland Association of Teachers, writes an "In My Opinion" essay that disputes the representations of Portland school officials and makes clear the needs and wishes of teachers.